Minneapolis Schools removed key finance staff, and they refuse to explain it

Minneapolis Public Schools placed its top three finance department leaders on administrative leave more than a week ago — but the district has not provided any public explanation.

The district has communicated the personnel changes to a narrow group of employees, but has not shared the information with school staff. The district has declined to comment to the Reformer, citing state privacy law. 

The significant personnel moves come as the district, already facing fiscal uncertainty, grapples with an audit whose delivery to the Minnesota Department of Education is already late. The district has declined to talk about that, as well.  

The Reformer has reached out to all five school board members who sit on the finance committee: Abdul Abdi, board treasurer; Collin Beachy, board chair; Greta Callahan; Kim Ellison, board vice chair; and Joyner Emerick. None would comment on the record. 

The school board will meet in executive session, closed to the public, to “discuss potential litigation in an employment-related matter” and “preliminary consideration of charges and allegations against an individual subject to the Board’s authority,” at 4 p.m. Tuesday, according to the official meeting notice. 

It is not clear from the notice whether these topics are related to Ibrahima Diop, Tariro Chapinduka or Aaron Gilbert, the three employees placed on leave.

There is nothing on the agenda for the board’s public meeting Tuesday that indicates the district will provide information about why the finance department leaders were placed on leave.

The district has started assigning some of the senior finance officers’ roles to Senior Executive Officer Ryan Strack. The school board approved a series of annual financial authorizations that included transferring multiple authorities to Strack, which in prior years the board had assigned to Diop in his role as senior finance officer. By Friday, Jan. 9, the Minnesota Department of Education had changed its website to name Strack as the district’s business agent — a role previously assigned to Diop.

Strack has not previously worked in the district’s finance department. He started at the district as a social worker, and at least as far back as 2018, under former Superintendent Ed Graff, worked as a liaison between the school board and the superintendent. 

Diop was hired by Milwaukee Public Schools on Dec. 18, 2025, to serve as a deputy superintendent of operations, according to WTMJ in Milwaukee. This is the day before his departure from Minneapolis Public Schools was announced to district staff. On Jan. 8, Milwaukee Public Schools informed district employees that Diop would not be joining the district.

The people of Milwaukee — and, for that matter, Minneapolis — might want to know the cause of this notable development, but at this point, Minneapolis Schools has declined to tell the public anything. 

This article was originally printed in Minnesota Reformer.